FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a no brainer that the number one problem on my little list right now was the Claxan, and they were getting tougher by the minute. However, every now and then another enemy comes along that requires immediate attention. Some are just a few gangs of hell raising teenagers thinking they were tough by being extremists for the Claxan, others were other extremists either out for casual crime, or attempts to assassinate me. What happened on this day was beyond the normal set of small time gangs. I was called into General Pepper's office early in the morning on alarm.

"Ryan," he said, "we have another problem right inside Corneria that needs your immediate attention."

"What is it sir?" I asked.

"An old gang has made itself apparent once again," he said, "they've been under the radar for more than nine years. All seven of them were part of the systems ten most wanted during the peak of their crime spree." Fara pressed a switch revealing a hologram of seven different people, each of different species.

"Each has given themselves a codename and each has a unique trait and power," Fara explained, "their leader is a tall gold dragon, who possesses extreme speed and strength. He is known as Pride. Followed is a female black cat, who specializes in controlling her own body composition, which allows her to stretch and change into water, for quick attacks. She is known as Sloth."

"Next is a female lizard," Pepper continued, "she is much like Nevlamas as she suffers from the black rage, which makes her much much stronger. She is known as Envy. After her is a dark black vixen. She is similar to Sloth, only the difference is she can only transfigure her claws, and extend them into nearly unbreakable blades. Her name is Lust, although I'm not sure how that fits."

"The next one on the list is an oversized bear," Fara continued, "his only true danger other than being impervious to our blasts is his ability to constantly eat people. He is named Gluttony. Number six is a rather devious otter, and he has the ability to infuse the material of certain objects into his body, allowing him to quickly change strengths and weaknesses. He is known as Greed."

"And finally," General Pepper pulled up a short orange fox, "this one is rather unique, no one knows what his abilities are, but being in a gang like this makes him extremely unpredictable, so he is known as Wrath."

"I just have a question," I asked slowly, "why do they name themselves after each deadly sin? It doesn't seem to match them in my opinion and it feels like it got ripped off a TV show somewhere."

"That I'm not sure Ryan," Pepper began, "all I do know is that these guys are extremely dangerous and usually show up as a group, therefore we are teaming you up with the best. They are waiting for you down in the lobby."

"Who are they?" I asked him, he smiled.

"You know more than anyone by now Ryan," he smirked, "it's Fox, Falco, and Krystal. Only this time you'll be teamed up with Wolf, Panther, and Leon as well." Now this was going to be an interesting match up, but all their skills would easily level the playing field a bit. I saluted the good general before hurrying downstairs, where the other six fighters were waiting for me. Surprisingly, the two teams haven't gone at each other's throats yet, which was suspiciously amazing.

"There you are Ryan," Panther began, "we were waiting, now we can get this over with."

"Remember everyone," Fox began, "we don't know what these guys have up their sleeves, so be extra cautious."

"It'll be a piece of cake," Falco boasted slamming his own chest.

"You're certainly one to talk," Leon shrugged. Wolf pushed off of the wall and walked out, without saying a word.

"Wolf has the right idea," Krystal said, "let's hurry." We all nodded and did so. A set of speeders was waiting outside for everyone else, while my classic motorcycle was sitting next to them.

"So has there been any sightings near Corneria?" I asked jumping into my motorcycle, and revving up the engine. I heard a click on my motorcycle receiver and heard Peppy's voice.

"There's been a nonconfirmed sighting in the forests past the city outskirts. Investigate there first and remain alert. If they're there they'll use the stealth of the forest to their advantage."

"Understood," I said and clicked out, driving way into the forest. I remained behind the rest of the group, and throughout the trip, I spoke to Bahamut within my mind.

‘Bahamut, what do you make of the situation?'

‘That's a tough one Ryan,' he replied, ‘I can sense their energy, but it can be mistaken for a Claxan member.'

‘Well,' I said, ‘if one of those guys shows up in the middle, it should kill two birds with one stone.'

‘Don't get too cocky,' Bahamut said, ‘confidence is one thing, but arrogance is another.'

‘What?' I mocked and said out loud, "I am not arrogant."

"Who's calling you arrogant?" Krystal asked.

"Bahamut again," I said, "but you already know, you crazy mind reader." She gave me a playful tongue and turned away, concentrating on the path. I chuckled and did the same, hearing only a small sigh from the dragon within my blade.

***

We kept speeding through the woods for a while until out of nowhere, a blast collided with Leon's speeder, destroying it and launching him high in the air. He flipped expertly flying to my motorcycle and I reached out my hand, grabbing his and pulling him onto my bike.

"What the hell was that?" Falco said, and jumped onto the ground rolling as another blast took out his speeder.

‘Above you,' Bahamut said in my mind, and I shouted the same thing halting to a stop. Everyone did the same. Sure enough, standing above us was those seven that I recognized in the pictures. Each of them carried an evil sneer across their faces, like a predator spying their prey, all for the exception of the fox. He looked saddened in a sense, like he didn't even want to be there.

"It's them," Fox said, and I yanked Bahamut out of his sheath, jumping off my motorcycle. The gold dragon in the middle jumped down and charged, both of us making headway for each other. One thing I noticed was he was approaching me at a much faster pace. When we got close enough I swung my blade, and surprisingly enough, the dragon stopped it mid-flight, with only one hand. I forced the sword away from his grip and swung at him from several different angles. I thought my swipes had gotten quick, but he quickly shifted out of the way of each swing, completely avoiding the hit. And exactly a second later, I found a fist connect my face, and instantaneously first several more fists hit my stomach, hard. Then with a hard grab, I found myself flying through the air, narrowly missing a couple dozen trees before slamming into one hard. I quickly regained my footing and watched the battle from afar, instantly the others were on them, each one leading one of my comrades away from each other.

‘So divide and conquer is their strategy,' I thought.

‘Ryan look closely,' Bahamut said, ‘you'll notice that the orange fox Wrath is missing.' I looked, and sure enough, the fox was nowhere to be seen, and I figured that he had probably gone looking for me. I picked up the pace and searched the forest, running down a path.

***

Falco kept running down the beaten path, his blaster was already heating up from the rapid shooting of the larger than normal grizzly bear chasing him down.

"Run as much as you can," the grizzly known as Gluttony shouted, "you won't be doing much of that in my belly." Falco ran up a tree quickly and jumped onto the beast's head, jabbing a few quick feat, then a couple headshots just as he landed behind him. Gluttony growled and swung violently at him, and Falco had to duck and jump out of the way to avoid getting hit.

‘I think I just made him mad,' Falco thought, ‘what am I worried about? I've fought tougher and larger guys than this.' Falco smirked and thought of an idea. "Hey fuck off, hands off my prey." He shot the beast again and ran down a beaten path, with Gluttony in hot pursuit. He looked behind him constantly, speeding up his pace with help from his accelerator, waiting for just the opportune moment. Finally, that moment came up and he stopped, sliding himself in between Gluttony's legs. Then, almost as if in slow motion, he jumped right on top of his back as Gluttony got on all fours. Then with swift precision, the blue avian pulled out a small knife and slashed across the beast's neck repeatedly. The beast let out a shriek of agony as several buckets worth of blood gushed out of the gaping wound, and the beast thrashed wildly, slamming Falco into a tree, and breaking the tree in the process.

"Damn," Falco gave a cough of pain and pulled himself up, seeing the feral rage in the glutton's eye. ‘Time to run.' In a split second, Falco bolted back down the path, the beast once again hot on this tail. Only this time the beast was gaining speed, and shrieking repeatedly in agony, and Falco could hear that the beast was running himself out and just kept running. ‘He'll bleed to death at this rate.' That moment didn't come soon enough, as the beast was still chasing him deep through the forest after another ten minutes or so. Falco turned and with a smirk, pulled out the exact same trick he did before, and managed a second time to get on his back, only this time, Falco pulled out his blaster and charged a shot. When it was ready, he slammed it in the beast, holding on with all his strength from the wild thrashing, and fired. The resulting force ricochet within the beast's neck, blowing the monster's head clean off. Falco backflipped off and to the ground, avoiding the flood of blood that had now stained the ground, and watch the remains of the monster collapse. That was the end of one of them.

"Piece of cake," he sighed sitting on a nearby rock, to catch his breath, "now there's one less monster to worry about. I just hope the others are alright."

***

Panther Caroso was having an easier time than the rest of them, and even had an upper hand throughout most of the fight.

"What's wrong little one?" Panther taunted, "Cat got your tongue? Or maybe your pitiful attempts at fusing wood to your body is still not strong enough for my blade." Panther was right about one thing, and that was the only thing worth infusing into Greed were the trees themselves, and in the particular part of the woods they were at, there weren't even enough pebbles to make any difference let alone any stones or rock.

"Shut up," the otter shouted as he shot several sharp stakes out of the tip of his hand at the smirking feline, who easily dodged out of the way. The panther pulled out a device and threw it right at Greed, and before Greed could knock it away, the device ignited, sending off a bright white light, that penetrated the area. Greed could only shift his eyes, and Panther used the shade of his scanner to pull out another grenade and threw it again, only this time it landed square on the otter's chest, instantly lighting the wood on fire. Panther rushed in as his incendiary did its damage and swung his blade. Despite injuries, Greed managed to thwart and block each of the Panther's attack. However, the grimace of the otter's face showed signs of slowing down and Panther took advantage of the speed, and pulled out his blaster, adding more shots to the flame. Greed tried to push away and run, but as he did, Panther quickly tripped him and sent the blade straight into the otter's heart. Greed gave no blood in this transaction, but spasmed wildly from the crushing blow, and as Panther pulled out, Greed collapsed in a dying heap, still breathing, but barely.

"Leave the real deal to us professionals," Panther chuckled sitting down on a tree trunk, "attacking us head on is a classic criminal mistake. It's too bad I had to kill you, you had great potential to be a real bad ass."

"Just you wait," Greed coughed, "I'm just the bottom of the barrel. The others are much stronger than I am, and once they find you, they'll avenge me."

"Just one question before you die like a rat," Panther said leaning down next to the otter, "what exactly were you trying to accomplish here?" Panther only heard stifled laughter from the dying otter, until he gave a last spasm of life, and was no more.

"I guess it's only fair to give a guess," Panther said, stretching a bit before hurrying down a path, "but I can save it for later. My scanner can see my teammates nearby."

***

I could hear a bit of crying after a few minutes of walking, and I traced myself slowly towards the source of the noise. I pulled Bahamut out into position and advanced slowly. After another minute I saw an orange fox, wearing tight clothing, and he was on the ground crying.

"Wrath?" I asked slowly. He looked up at me and gave a look of fear and scrambled backwards.

"No," he said, "please don't hurt me." I was confused, was he just that unpredictable, or is he really just a scared little kid. I put down my blade, despite Bahamut's warnings to be careful.

"It's ok," I said extending a hand, "I'm not here to hurt you. You ran away from the others, didn't you?" He looked at my hand for a second and then at my face. I gave him a reassuring smile, and he eventually grabbed my hand. I smiled and pulled him on his feat.

"Thanks," he said shyly.

"It's alright," I said, "although it's not safe here, we need to get you out of here."

"But what if they come back?" he asked worriedly.

"If they come I'll protect you," I said. We started walking down any beaten path, hoping that I could hopefully come across one of my comrades. As we walked we slowly got into a comfortable conversation.

"So is Wrath your real name?" I asked.

"N-no," he said, "it's Dean."

"Dean huh?" I said and chuckled, "nice name."

"When I was kidnapped," he began, "nine years ago, they performed experiments on me. They wanted to turn me into one of them."

"You mean the others?" I asked curiously, and he nodded.

"Their leader Pride was first to be created," he said, "he was labeled a failure by the scientist who created him. A scientist once feared by all."

"Andross?" I asked, he nodded again.

"After he found out of the experiments who created him, he went mad," Dean continued, "After destroying everything he gathered a few other experiments as followers."

"And this is the result?" I asked.

"That's right," he replied, "each of them were given a codename when they were experimented on, each after a deadly sin."

‘So that explains the names,' I thought.

‘Just be wary Ryan,' Bahamut said, ‘Pepper did say he was unpredictable, plus, this whole scared thing doesn't feel entirely right, like something is missing out of the truth.'

‘How do you know?' I asked him while looking at Dean, who easily kept up my walking pace.

‘I don't know for sure,' Bahamut said, ‘it's just a feeling.'

***

Unlike Panther's battle, Leon's was about to take a turn for the worst, after Leon suffered an arm wound from Envy's claws and was losing blood fast. One sniff of his blood was all it took for Envy to give a shrill loud cry, and immediately went berserk. Leon ducked quickly out of the way, avoiding the ravenous clawing of the lizard in black rage. The chameleon quickly searched around, hoping to find the blaster he dropped. Just as he saw it, he found it batted away by Envy with a quick swipe who eyed him.

"BLOOD!!!" She let out in a curling scream. She got on all fours and lunged at Leon with a feral leap, and Leon quickly kicked her over his head with his boot. Envy caught herself midair and landed skillfully on her feet, and quickly turned around. Leon was nowhere to be found.

"I can ssmell you," she said through hyperventilating breaths, "you can't hide." Leon remained motionless and silent, camouflaged high up a tree. He had thought quick too, leaving several splotched of fresh blood all around the field, to deter the blind raged lizard off course. He held his bloody arm with his good hand, the other hand clenching a small knife. He waited for Envy to pass by below him, and with a held breath, he jumped down, and charged.

"YOU," She shouted and turned. Before anything though, Leon flashed his accelerator on, and quickly slashed through Envy's throat. She let out a shrill cry of agony, clenching her neck as gushes of blood flowed out of the wound. She collapsed a few seconds later, quickly dead.

"I wonder why she was called Envy," Leon said aloud to himself as he cleansed his wound off with a cloth, "I guess now, we might never know." He cleansed his blade off, before picking up his blaster and pocketing it. After patching up his wound, he quickly staggered himself down the trail, knowing that the others were in immediate danger.

***

Wolf O' Donnell was getting angrier by the second. He gave a quick jump from the tree branch he was stationed on just before the vixen behind cut it down. Wolf landed with just enough time to jump away again. The lupine had been stuck on the defensive for the past several minutes, due to the one called Lust's extended claws.

‘God I hate this bitch,' Wolf thought in his head, ‘Her advantage is in her distance away. So I have to find a way to get up close to her.' Wolf fired a few shots, which were surprisingly ineffective as Lust dodged it.

"This is fun," the vixen said in a soft seductive voice, "how about a little dance?" Wolf growled as the vixen charged, and swiped her claws again. Wolf jumped away again, only to flip backwards to dodge another swipe.

"Shut up bitch," Wolf said and quickly hatched an idea. Wolf charged and switched his deflector shield on, just before the claws struck, and the claws shattered before the barrier. Lust jumped back in a shriek of pain, only to be met by several swipes of Wolf's own claws. Wolf growled and pounced on the vixen, tackling her to the ground, with the lupine on top. Wolf slammed his claws into her face, swiping into a blind rage, digging his claws deep within her flesh, until her remains couldn't even simulate a blood-stained silhouette of a vixen. Wolf pulled off, venting off in a fit of rage, covered in the vixen's blood.

"Too bad," Wolf said as he calmed himself down, and cleaned up, "I only prefer women who prefer to step off the dance floor. Now where to find the others. Might as well find the rest of my team." After cleaning off as much of the blood as possible, he walked down the path, with a cool nonchalant smile on his muzzle.

***

"So all of them are just failed experiments of Andross," I said aloud, "I guess it doesn't seem too tough now that I think about it."

"Andross's goal was to create the ultimate biological weapons using people," Dean explained, "at least with these experiments. Although he progressed much, the advances didn't seem too apparent, and he eventually lost heart on the subjects, erasing their memories and turning them into more of his soldiers."

"And then Pride found out," I added, he nodded, "but... why did they kidnap you?"

"My father was a scientist who left Andross's experiment team after Pride was created," he explained, "when Pride found out, he came to my father asking for the method of mutation that was performed. He refused, and in response I was taken, to be used for blackmail. After my father finally handed it over..."

"He," I began and was cut off.

"Pride killed my father," he said, "then performed his experiments on me, and threatened that he'd kill me if I ever disobeyed him."

"And here you are eh?" I scratched the back of my head.

"Yes," he said, "the past nine years I spent hiding in the underground with the rest of the group, training for the day we come out of hiding and destroy our enemies, the one's we were programmed to destroy."

"Star Fox," I said slowly.

"Yes," he said again, "I just want this nightmare to finally end."

"It will once I get you out of here," I said, "now let's hurry and find the others, so that we can get out of here." Dean nodded and we hurried down the beaten path. Dean was close behind me, and I didn't notice then as Dean clenched his hand on a hidden knife.

***

Krystal was having a fairly even match. Sloth's attacked were easily dodged and predicted, and yet, the cat was completely calm about it. The cat shifted her arm into an ice spire, and quickly shifted towards the vixen. Sloth was ungodly quick, despite her name. Krystal as quick to dodge it, blocking consequent attacks with her staff. The vixen quickly pulled out her blasters and shot down the arm, which was quickly reassembled.

"You can regenerate," Krystal said, Sloth chuckled.

"You sound surprised," Sloth said, "let's just say I'm special, just like you."

"What do you mean?" The vixen asked.

"What do I mean you ask?" the cat chuckled, "you can read minds, and can use certain magical talents. You're different from most, I know, I can feel it."

"I hate to break it to you," Krystal said gripping her staff tightly, "but I'm not the only one who happens to have such abilities."

"I heard about that hairless primate Ryan," Sloth chuckled, "so, how does it feel?"

"Feel?"

"Being in Ryan's shadow?" Sloth chuckled, "in the past it's always been about Star Fox being the big hero. Now with all that scare of the "Claxan" it's always about Ryan being the new hope. Trust me, you guys are out of the spotlight now. One day Ryan will overshadow all of you, and cast you aside."

"That's not true," Krystal shouted, "we're his-"

"Friends?" Sloth interrupted, "hah, as if. Trust me, one day Ryan will be all alone, and when that day comes, he'll perish." Sloth was interrupted by a quick jab of the staff at her stomach.

"Leave us alone," Krystal said, sending several volts of electricity into the cat. Sloth collapsed to her knees and Krystal jumped high in the air, pulling out twin blasters and setting them on automatic. She unloaded the weapons into the cat until they overheated, before pulling off a linear launcher from her back and sending a large missile directly at the cat, which connected head on. The furious explosion blinded Krystal for a second, who covered her eyes. When she reopened them, she found the feline degraded into nothingness.

"Sorry," Krystal said, "I don't like women who play rough."

***

Pride was ungodly fast, fast enough to deflect every one of Fox's quick blows. If one thing Fox prided on in it was his unmatched speed in his fighting. Fox tried a few maneuvers on the larger dragon, before finding his arms painfully twisted, and met his face with an elbow, and hit the ground hard.

"I was expecting more of a challenge from the leader of Star Fox," Pride said before Fox staggered up. The vulpine quickly turned on his accelerator.

"The pride comes before the fall," Fox charged again, this time he succeeded in matching the dragon's speed. The two ran across the field at extremely quick speeds, flipping through the air and throwing blow after quick blow. Each successful hit on a person was met with another.

"You're pretty quick," Pride said chuckling, "as expected, after all, anyone can match me with the help of enough technology." The dragon quickly spun around, tripping Fox onto his back. Before Fox could react, he found a large hand grip his throat and squeeze. Fox struggled for a gasp of air and reached for his blaster, gripping it hard and shooting the dragon square in the eyes. The dragon let out a loud growl and let his grip loose, gripping his face. Fox took advantage and pulled out a small dagger, and jabbed it into Pride's neck. The forced knocked the dragon into a nearby boulder, who collapsed on his ass, leaning against the boulder, while slowly dying of breath and blood loss. Fox walked up to the dragon, sheathing his weapons.

"Why did you come here?" Fox asked. The dragon gave a wheezing laugh.

"You may have bested me," he said, "but I've entrusted my student with the ability to defeat you all. If he doesn't get you, he'll at least get the one we aimed at from the start." He coughed and lost all strength, quickly dead. Fox gave a quick alarm of realization.

"Wrath," he said, "Ryan. Damn, this was all a distraction. Oh god, please don't let Ryan be found." Fox took off quickly down a forest path, trying to remember where he last saw Ryan getting thrown.

***

We got to the cliff area overlooking the city. As we looked around we saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"They're not here either," I said with a small sigh, "let's keep moving, we're close to the city limits anyway." I was interrupted in my thoughts with Bahamut shouting.

‘RYAN, BEHIND YOU!' I turned quickly and jumped aside just as Dean slashed a dagger past me.

"Dean," I brought Bahamut up to my defense, "what's gotten into you?"

"You don't understand what I said earlier do you?" he said, starting to break into tears again, "I have to kill you, or he'll kill me." He was quickly upset, and I figured this was the unpredictability Pepper was speaking of earlier.

"Dean," I said slowly, "I know you went through hell and back. But Pride isn't here now, you're with me and I can protect you, just put the knife down please."

"You don't understand," he said chokingly, "I'm Wrath, and I have to kill you." He ran at me at a speed so fast that I could swear he was teleporting.

‘Ryan, sync with me,' Bahamut said, and I did so, quickly swinging my blade. As I swung, six small slices of wind cut through the air, one knocked the sword out of Dean's hand and another knocked him back onto his feat.

"Blizzaga," I shouted, and summoned several ice spires to trap him in place.

"I've been branded a criminal," Dean shouted, "I can't go back." He sent a large blue energy ball at me, which I absorbed into the sword with the runic blade technique.

"Firaga," I shouted, sending several large fireballs at the trapped fox. As the fire collided with the Ice, I sent another spell his way.

"Thundaga," A rather large lightning bolt struck down from the sky, hitting Dean head on, and he collapsed on his back. He was greatly hurt, but still very much alive.

"Just kill me," he said, "I have no life to go back to."

"How can you say that?" I said, kneeling over him, and holding him up in my arms, "I'm here to help you, to protect and serve. To kill you would break that vow. And I won't leave you either."

"Ryan," he said, "the great Ryan Lewis. Masterpaladin, I now know why they call you a "master of champions" as it's translated. It's because you have the heart of one. I've always thought everyone was heartless and uncaring. Thanks for proving me wrong." He quickly jumped up on his feet and started walking back into the forest.

"Dean," I said, "where are you going?" He turned and smiled.

"Dean/Wrath is dead," he replied, "I'm just a nameless nomad now, destined to run from the law forever. Goodbye masterpaladin." He smirked and took off; he was out of sight within a second. I guess that was it huh? I know for a fact that Dean wasn't a bad guy, at least now I do, and I just hope that he finds the freedom he's looking for, because under the eyes of the Cornerian government, he's still Wrath, fugitive at large, or maybe not. I heard my communicator turn on and I switched it on, seeing the other six people.

"Is everyone alright," Fox said, "I've confirmed the body of Pride, any others?"

"I finished Sloth," Krystal said.

"Gluttony," Falco said, "deceased."

"Lust is dead," Wolf stated bluntly.

"As is Envy," Leon said.

"Greed has fallen," Panther said. I hesitated for a moment, thinking of a good excuse.

"Ryan?" Fox asked, "did you find Wrath? I know for a fact that he's after you."

"Yeah, he found me," I said, "there are no remains of his body."

"I see," Fox said with a sigh of relief, "good work, we must report back to General Pepper immediately."

"Don't tell me what to do," Wolf said. I shut off my communicator and walked to the cliff edge, staring off into the sky.

‘That was a very nice thing you did for him,' Bahamut clicked in my mind.

‘Well, at least I believed in him, and his own well being,' I said, ‘No one else showed him that same compassion. Especially not you.' I chuckled.

‘What?! I'll have you know I only said to be careful in accordance to General Pepper's warning,' he said.

‘Whatever you say,' I said, clicked him out of my mind, and stared into the sky again, waiting there for the rest of my team to find me. I still had more questions about the whole fiasco, but with the bad guy's dead, I figured there was no point in pursuing the subject any further. Besides, I was a mercenary, and in the end, what mattered was doing my job.